A lifelong basketball man, Ben Braun is more comfortable with the pick-and-roll than iambic pentameter. But the Cal basketball coach stepped out of his realm Thursday to deliver a poetry reading at the university’s cozy Morrison Library.

And it was nothing but net for the coach who earned his undergrad degree in English more than 30 years ago.

The first of 10 readers Thursday at Cal’s monthly “Lunch Poems” series, Braun has coached in front of 20,000 fans. But he joked to the audience of 100 that he “got the shakes” anticipating his poetry assignment.

“I thought Ben was a real pro,” said Cal librarian Tom Leonard, among those who arranged the lineup of faculty and staff for the year’s first reading. “He speaks at a lot of pressured situations. This was a very friendly audience, but not one he’s probably used to. He was clear and direct.”

Reflecting on his early days as an English teacher in high school and at Siena Heights College in Adrian, Mich., Braun confessed to the audience, “Don’t tell my players, but I’d rather be here than at practice.”

He said he chose “If” because it’s always been a favorite, and still has meaning and relevance for him today.

“It was something that was inspirational for me growing up, to show you life is not going to be easy,” Braun said. “The message I kind of get from Kipling is you don’t let circumstances change who you are.”

Braun, beginning his 12th year in Berkeley, has coached Cal to five NCAA tournament berths. But he’s also faced challenges such as last season, when injuries contributed to a losing record and cries from critics.

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster,” Kipling wrote, “and treat those two imposters just the same …”

What coach couldn’t relate?

Braun said his players wondered if he was going to read a poem he wrote, but he planned to give each of them a copy of “If” for their own consideration.

“I think they can draw from this,” he said. “I’m not even sure poets understand everything in their poems. But they feel their poems, and readers feel their poems. That poem has just had a great feeling for me over the years.”

Maybe it takes one of the world's most elitist institutions -- a monarchy, for goodness' sake -- to provide a view of Christianity rooted not in conservative cultural warfare (or unrelenting support for Donald Trump) but in an egalitarian love.